Mobile terminal, access point related content providing server, access point related content acquiring method, mobile terminal program

ABSTRACT

A content based on location information is provided to a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal  10  is communicatively connected to an access point related content providing server that includes a storage unit having an access point related content database  250  in which IP addresses and URLs of contents are associated with each other and are stored. The mobile terminal  10  performs a communication with a wireless access point to access a public network, acquires an IP address of the wireless access point, and transmits the acquired IP address to the access point related content providing server. The mobile terminal  10  receives an URL of a content that is associated with the transmitted IP address or location information identified by the transmitted IP address, and acquires the content designated by the received URL.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation Application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/472,577 filed on Aug. 29, 2014, which claimspriority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-090718 filed on Apr.24, 2014, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

(a) Field

The present invention generally relates to a mobile terminal, an accesspoint related content providing server, an access point related contentacquiring method, and a mobile terminal program for providing locationinformation based content.

(b) Description of the Related Art

In recent years, with spread of high-performance mobile terminals calledsmartphones or tablets, it is explosively increased to use contents asusers move. Further, contents that users expect to browse in many placesare increasing.

On the other hand, many of users are currently browsing web contentsusing search engines, and so-called pull-type content provision in whichthe users see what they want to see becomes the mainstream. However, inthis case, a problem that precious contents do not provided to the usersoccurs.

To solve this problem, a recommendation system has been developed. Therecommendation system performs a recommendation using the user'sattributes without performing pre-registration for the user by usingacquired face image of the user.

For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2013-073420 discloses thata mobile terminal acquires a user's face image and extracts a featurequantity from the acquired user's face image. Then, the mobile terminaltransmits the extracted feature quantity to a recommendation server. Therecommendation server receives the feature quantity from the mobileterminal, stores at least a plurality of feature quantities, performsmatching processing of the received feature quantity with the storedfeature quantities, recommends an application or the like on the basisof the matching result, and transmits the recommendation result to themobile terminal. The mobile terminal receives the recommendation resultfrom the recommendation server, and displays the received recommendationresult.

However, since the recommendation is performed based on individualinformation such as the face in the above reference, it is impossible toperform the recommendation based on environment information such aslocation or time zone.

SUMMARY

An aspect of the present invention is directed to provide a mobileterminal, an access point related content providing server, an accesspoint related content acquiring method, and a mobile terminal programfor identifying a current location of a user from usage information of aGPS (Global Positioning System) or a public wireless LAN (Local AreaNetwork) and then providing the user with a URL (Uniform ResourceLocator) of a content that is associated with the identified location,thereby providing the user with the content according to the locationinformation.

The present invention may provide the following aspects.

In a first aspect of the present invention, a mobile terminalcommunicatively connected to an access point related content providingserver is provided. The mobile terminal includes an access pointcommunication module configured to perform a communication with awireless access point to access a public network, an IP addressacquisition module configured to acquire an IP address of the wirelessaccess point or an IP address of a router connected to the wirelessaccess point, an IP address transmission module configured to transmitthe acquired IP address to the access point related content providingserver, an URL reception module configured to receive from the accesspoint related content providing server an URL of a content that isassociated with the transmitted IP address or location informationidentified by the transmitted IP address, and a content acquisitionmodule configured to acquire the content designated by the received URL.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a mobileterminal communicatively connected to an access point related contentproviding server can perform a communication with a wireless accesspoint to access a public network, acquire an IP address of the wirelessaccess point or an IP address of a router connected to the wirelessaccess point, transmit the acquired IP address to the access pointrelated content providing server, receive from the access point relatedcontent providing server an URL of a content that is associated with thetransmitted IP address or location information identified by thetransmitted IP address, and acquire the content designated by thereceived URL.

The first aspect of the present invention relates to the mobileterminal, but may be applicable to an access point related acquiringmethod and a mobile terminal program in the same manner.

In a second aspect of the present invention, an access point relatedcontent providing server communicatively connected to a mobile terminalis provided. The access point related content providing server has astorage unit including an access point related content database in whichIP addresses of requestors and URLs of contents are associated with eachother and are stored. The access point related content providing serversincludes a requestor IP address reception module configured to receivefrom the mobile terminal an IP address of the wireless access point or arouter to which the mobile terminal is connected, a related contentextraction module configured to extract from the access point relatedcontent database an URL of a content that is associated with thereceived IP address and an access point related content providing moduleconfigured to provide the mobile terminal with the extracted URL.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, an access pointrelated content providing server which is communicatively connected to amobile terminal and has a storage unit including an access point relatedcontent database in which IP addresses of requestors and URLs ofcontents are associated with each other and are stored, can receive fromthe mobile terminal an IP address of the wireless access point or arouter to which the mobile terminal is connected, extract from theaccess point related content database an URL of a content that isassociated with the received IP address, and provide the mobile terminalwith the extracted URL.

In a third aspect of the present invention, the access point relatedcontent providing server according to the second aspect of the presentinvention further has in the storage unit a location related contentdatabase in which location information of requestors and URLs ofcontents are associated with each other and are stored, and furtherincludes a location information identification module configured toidentify a location of the mobile terminal based on the received IPaddress, and a proximity content extraction module configured to extractfrom the location related content database an URL of a content that isassociated with location information within a predetermined range fromthe identified location.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the access pointrelated content providing server according to the second aspect can havein the storage unit a location related content database in whichlocation information of requestors and URLs of contents are associatedwith each other and are stored, identify a location of the mobileterminal based on the received IP address, and extract from the locationrelated content database an URL of a content that is associated withlocation information within a predetermined range from the identifiedlocation.

In a fourth aspect of the present invention, a method of acquiring anaccess point related content is provided by a mobile terminalcommunicatively connected to an access point related content providingserver. The method includes acquiring an IP address of a wireless accesspoint or a router being used to access a public network, transmittingthe acquired IP address to the access point related content providingserver, receiving from the access point related content providing serveran URL of a content that is associated with the transmitted IP addressor location information identified by the transmitted IP address, andacquiring the content designated by the received URL.

In a fifth aspect of the present invention, a recording medium thatstores a program for executing an access point related content acquiringmethod on a mobile terminal that is communicatively connected to anaccess point related content providing server is provided. The accesspoint related content acquiring method includes acquiring an IP addressof a wireless access point or a router being used to access a publicnetwork, transmitting the acquired IP address to the access pointrelated content providing server, receiving from the access pointrelated content providing server an URL of a content that is associatedwith the transmitted IP address or location information identified bythe transmitted IP address, and acquiring the content designated by thereceived URL.

Aspects of the present invention can provide a mobile terminal, anaccess point related content providing server, an access point relatedcontent acquiring method, and a mobile terminal program for identifyinga current location of a user from usage information of a GPS or a publicwireless LAN and then providing the user with a URL of a content that isassociated with the identified location, thereby providing the user withthe content according to the location information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an overview of an access pointrelated content providing system 1 according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of an access point related contentproviding system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a function block diagram of a mobile terminal 10, an accesspoint related content providing server 200, and a web server 300.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an access point related content providingprocess executed by a mobile terminal 10, an access point relatedcontent providing server 200, and a web server 300.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a display unit of a mobile terminal 10displaying a received content.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a case that a mobile terminal 10changes an access point to which it is connected.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an access point related content table in anaccess point related content database 250.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a location related content table in alocation related content database 251.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, only certain embodiments of thepresent invention have been shown and described, simply by way ofillustration. As those skilled in the art would realize, the describedembodiments may be modified in various different ways, all withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the present invention.Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded asillustrative in nature and not restrictive. Like reference numeralsdesignate like elements throughout the specification.

Overview of Access Point Related Content Providing System 1

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an overview of an access pointrelated content providing system 1 according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The access point related content providing system 1includes a mobile terminal 10, an access point related content providingserver 200, and a web server 300.

In the access point related content providing system 1, the mobileterminal 10 connects to an access pint 20 to perform communication witha public network (Step S01). Simultaneously, the mobile terminal 10acquires an IP (Internet Protocol) address of the access point 20. TheIP address indicates a global IP address. In the case that the accesspoint 20 is a relay and does not have the global IP address, the mobileterminal 10 acquires an IP address of a router to which the access point20 is connected.

Next, the mobile terminal 10 transmits the acquired IP address to theaccess point related content providing server 200 (Step S02). The accesspoint related content providing server 200 that has received the IPaddress extracts from an access point related content database 250 anURL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a content associated with the receivedIP address (Step S03).

The access point related content providing server 200 transmits theextracted URL to the mobile terminal 10 (Step S04). When a plurality ofURLs have been extracted, the access point related content providingserver 200 may select a URL with the largest weight from among theplurality of URLs with reference to weights predefined for the URLs.

On receiving the URL, the mobile terminal 10 transmits a request to theweb server 300 based on the URL (Step S05). The web server 300 transmitsto the mobile terminal 10 a web page, image(s), video(s), orapplication(s) in response to the request (Step S06). An applicationrunning in the mobile terminal 10 executes or plays the received data,thereby playing the content(s) on the mobile terminal 10 (Step S07).

Here, as a rule, the access point related content providing server 200only provide the URL of the content, but does not provide the contentitself. Accordingly, information about a relationship between thelocation information and contents stored in other servers can beprovided as well as contents stored in the access point related contentproviding server 200 such that information to be handled can beincreased.

As described above, the mobile terminal 10 can perform the connection tothe access point 20, thereby receiving the content related to thecurrent location of the URL without receiving any URL from the user. Theabove disclosure is the overview of the access point related contentproviding system 1.

System Configuration of Access Point Related Content Providing System 1

FIG. 2 is a system block diagram of an access point related contentproviding system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.The access point related content providing system 1 includes a mobileterminal 10, an access point related content providing server 200, a webserver 300, and a public network 3 (for example, an internet network, orthe third generation (3G) or fourth generation (4G) communicationnetwork).

The mobile terminal 10 has functions to be described below, and canperform data communication. The mobile terminal 10 is an electricappliance for home or commercial use that can be used while a user moveswith carrying it. For example, the mobile terminal 10 may be a mobilephone, a portable information terminal, or a home information appliancesuch as a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a netbook terminal, a slateterminal, an electronic dictionary terminal, a portable music player, orthe like.

The access point related content providing server 200 has functions tobe described below, and may be a server for providing a URL of a contentaccording to an IP address of an access point to which the mobileterminal 10 has attached.

The web server 300 may be a typical web server for providing a webcontent to the mobile terminal 10.

Description of Each Function

Configuration of each device is described with reference to FIG. 3.

The mobile terminal 10 includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU), aRandom Access Memory (RAM), a Read Only Memory (ROM) and the like as acontroller 11. The mobile terminal 10 further includes, as acommunication unit 12, a device for enabling a communication with otherdevice, for example a WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) enabled device based onIEEE 802.11.

In the mobile terminal 10, the control unit 11 reads a predeterminedprogram, thereby realizing an access point communication module 13, anIP address acquisition module 14, an IP address transmission module 15,an URL reception module 16, and a content acquisition module 17, incooperation with the communication unit 12.

Similarly to the mobile terminal 10, the access point related contentproviding server 200 includes a CPU, a RAM, a ROM and the like as acontrol unit 201. The access point related content providing server 200further includes, as a communication unit 202, for example, a WiFienabled device based on IEEE 802.11, or other appliance such as a devicefor enabling a connection by a wire cable, and a device for realizing adata communication with a wireless access point. Furthermore, the accesspoint related content providing server 200 further includes, as astorage unit 203 for storing data and files, a data storage unitaccording to a hard disk, a semiconductor memory, a recording medium, ora memory card. The storage unit 203 includes an access point relatedcontent database 250 and a location related content database 251.

In the access point related content providing server 200, the controlunit 201 reads a predetermined program, thereby realizing a requestor IPaddress reception module 204, an access point related content providingmodule 205, and a location information identification module 206, incooperation with the communication unit 202. Further, in the accesspoint related content providing server 200, the control unit 201 reads apredetermined program, thereby realizing a related content extractionmodule 207 and a proximity content extraction module 208 in cooperationwith the storage unit 203.

Similarly to the mobile terminal 10, the web server 300 includes a CPU,a RAM, a ROM and the like as a control unit 301. The web server 300further includes, as a communication unit 302, for example, a WiFienabled device based on IEEE 802.11, or other appliance such as a devicefor enabling a connection by a wire cable, and a device for realizing adata communication with a wireless access point.

In the web server 300, the control unit 301 reads a predeterminedprogram, thereby realizing a web content providing module 303 incooperation with the communication unit 302.

Access Point Related Content Providing Process

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an access point related content providingprocess executed by a mobile terminal 10, an access point relatedcontent providing server 200, and a web server 300. Processes executedby the modules of each device described above are described inconjunction with the present procedure.

First, the access point communication module 13 of the mobile terminal10 starts a communication with an access point (Step S11). Here, theaccess point is a device that performs a communication for accessing thepublic network via the wireless communication.

Next, the IP address acquisition module 14 of the mobile terminal 10acquires an IP address of the access point to which the mobile terminal10 is connected (Step S12). Here, the IP address indicates a global IPaddress not a private IP address. In the case that the access point doesnot have the global IP address, the mobile terminal 10 may acquire an IPaddress of a router to which the access point is connected.

Subsequently, the IP address transmission module 15 of the mobileterminal 10 transmits the acquired IP address to the access pointrelated content providing server 200 (Step S13). The requestor IPaddress reception module 204 of the access point related contentproviding server 200 receives the IP address transmitted from the mobileterminal 10, i.e., a requestor (Step S14).

The location information identification module 206 of the access pointrelated content providing server 200 identifies a current location ofthe mobile terminal 10 based on the received IP address (Step S15).

Next, the related content extraction module 207 of the access pointrelated content providing server 200 extracts from the access pointrelated content database 250 an URL of a content associated with thereceived IP address (Step S16).

FIG. 7 shows an example of an access point related content table in anaccess point related content database 250. In the access point relatedcontent table, IP addresses of access points, names of the contents,URLs of the contents, and weights of the contents are associated witheach other and are stored.

Regarding the IP address, the IP address may be represented as a patternby using a percent sign % indicating any of a plurality of numbers, likean example of “200.168.9.1%”. For example, the IP address of“200.168.9.11”, “200.168.9.151”, or “200.168.9.1” may allocated to theIP address of “200.168.9.1%”. When a plurality of contents are extractedat the extraction of the related content, a content with the largestweight may be extracted from among the plurality of contents withreference to the weights associated with the contents. Alternatively, acontent having the highest conformity according to the pattern may beextracted.

Further, the proximity content extraction module 208 of the access pointrelated content providing server 200 extracts from the location relatedcontent database 251 a content associated with location information thatis within a predetermined range from the identified location information(Step S16).

FIG. 8 shows an example of a location related content table in alocation related content database 251. In the location related contenttable, location information, URLs of the contents, and weights of thecontents are associated with each other and are stored. Here, thelocation information is represented by latitude and longitude.Alternatively, the location information may be represented by a placename, a building name, or an identifier thereof.

The proximity content extraction module 208 of the access point relatedcontent providing server 200 extracts the location information that iswithin a predetermined range from the identified location information,and extracts from the location related content table the content that isassociated with the extracted location information. When a plurality ofcontents are extracted, a content having the largest weight may beextracted with reference to the weights. Alternatively, a content havingthe shortest length from the identified location information may beextracted.

The access point related content providing module 205 of the accesspoint related content providing server 200 transmits the URL of theextracted content to the mobile terminal 10 (Step S17).

The URL reception module 16 of the mobile terminal 10 receives the URLof the content (Step S18), the content acquisition module 17 transmits arequest for the content to the web server 300 designated as an accessdestination by the URL (Step S19).

When receiving the request (Step S20), the web content providing module303 of the web server 300 transmits a web page, an image, a video, orstreaming corresponding to the request as a response (Step S21). Thecontent acquisition module 17 of the mobile terminal 10 receives the webpage, the image, the video, or the streaming (Step S22). The mobileterminal 10 may play or execute the received content. When the receivedcontent is an application, the mobile terminal 10 may automaticallyinstall the received application.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a display unit of a mobile terminal 10displaying a received content. In FIG. 5, the acquired URL is displayedin an address bar 51, and the received content is displayed in a window52. A wireless communication icon 53 is displayed and indicates that themobile terminal 10 is connected to a certain access point.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a case that a mobile terminal 10changes an access point to which it is connected. In FIG. 6, IPaddresses 61 and 62 are allocated to access points 20A and 20B,respectively, and the access points 20A and 20B are installed inbuildings 63 and 64, respectively.

First, if the mobile terminal 10 connects to the access point 20A, themobile terminal 10 receives a content 65 associated with the IP address61 from the access point related content providing server 200 anddisplays the content 65. Next, if the mobile terminal 10 moves along apath 67 and connects to the access point 20B, the mobile terminal 10receives a content 66 associated with the IP address 62 from the accesspoint related content providing server 200 and displays the content 66.A resident application of the mobile terminal 10 may monitor theseprocedures.

The above disclosure is the procedure of the access point relatedcontent providing process executed by the mobile terminal 10, the accesspoint related content providing server 200, and the web server 300.

The above-described means and functions are realized by reading andexecuting a predetermined program by a computer (including a CPU, aninformation processing apparatus, and various terminals). The program isrecorded in a (non-transitory) computer-readable recording medium, forexample, a flexible disk, a CD (e.g., a CD-ROM or the like) and a DVD(e.g., a DVD-ROM, a DVD-RAM, or the like). In this case, the program isread from the recording medium by a computer and transmitted to aninternal storage unit or an external storage unit to be stored andexecuted. Further, the program may be pre-stored in a storage unit(recording medium) such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or anoptical magnetic disk and transmitted from the recording medium to acomputer through a communications line.

While this invention has been described in connection with what ispresently considered to be practical embodiments, it is to be understoodthat the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, onthe contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalentarrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of acquiring a content by a mobileterminal, the method comprising: acquiring an IP address of a wirelessaccess point or a router connected to the wireless access point;transmitting the IP address to a content providing server; receivingfrom the content providing server an URL of a content that is associatedwith location information within a predetermined range from a locationof the mobile terminal that is identified based on the IP address by thecontent providing server; acquiring the content designated by the URL;displaying the content; monitoring movement of the mobile terminal tochange the displayed content; and in response to the mobile terminalmoving and connecting to a second wireless access point, receiving fromthe content providing server a second URL of a second content that isassociated with a second IP address of the second wireless access pointor a second router connected to the second wireless access point, andchanging the displayed content to the second content designated by thesecond URL, wherein the content is a content that has a largest weightamong a plurality of contents that are associated with locationinformation, each of the plurality of contents having a correspondingweight.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from thecontent providing server an URL of a content that is associated with theIP address.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is a contentthat has a shortest distance from the location of the mobile terminalamong a plurality of contents that are associated with locationinformation.
 4. A content providing server communicatively connected toa mobile terminal, the content providing server comprising: a storageunit comprising a first content database in which location informationand URLs of contents are associated with each other and are stored, oneor more controllers which execute one or more modules comprising: arequestor IP (Internet Protocol) address reception module which receivesfrom the mobile terminal an IP address of a wireless access point towhich the mobile terminal is connected or a router connected to thewireless access point; a location information identification modulewhich identifies a location of the mobile terminal based on the receivedIP address; and a first content extraction module which extracts fromthe first content database an URL of a content that is associated withlocation information within a predetermined range from the location ofthe mobile terminal; and a content providing module that provides themobile terminal with the extracted URL, wherein, in response to themobile terminal moving and connecting to a second wireless access point,the first content extraction module extracts from the first contentdatabase a second URL of a second content that is associated with asecond IP address of the second wireless access point or a second routerconnected to the second wireless access point, and the content providingmodule provides the mobile terminal with the second URL to allow themobile terminal to change the content to the second content designatedby the second URL, and wherein the content is a content that has alargest weight among a plurality of contents that are associated withlocation information, each of the plurality of contents having acorresponding weight.
 5. The content providing server of claim 4,wherein the storage unit further comprises a second content database inwhich IP addresses and URLs of contents are associated with each otherand are stored, and wherein the one or more modules further comprises asecond content extraction module which extracts from the second contentdatabase an URL of a content that is associated with the received IPaddress.
 6. The content providing server of claim 4, wherein the contentis a content that has a shortest distance from the location of themobile terminal among a plurality of contents that are associated withlocation information.
 7. A non-transitory recording medium that stores aprogram for executing a content acquiring method on a mobile terminal,the content acquiring method comprising: acquiring an IP address of awireless access point or a router connected to the wireless accesspoint; transmitting the IP address to a content providing server;receiving from the content providing server an URL of a content that isassociated with location information within a predetermined range from alocation of the mobile terminal that is identified based on the IPaddress by the content providing server; acquiring the contentdesignated by the URL; displaying the content; monitoring movement ofthe mobile terminal to change the displayed content; and in response tothe mobile terminal moving and connecting to a second wireless accesspoint, receiving from the content providing server a second URL of asecond content that is associated with a second IP address of the secondwireless access point or a second router connected to the secondwireless access point, and changing the displayed content to the secondcontent designated by the second URL, wherein the content is a contentthat has a largest weight among a plurality of contents that areassociated with location information, each of the plurality of contentshaving a corresponding weight.
 8. The non-transitory recording medium ofclaim 7, wherein the content acquiring method further comprisesreceiving from the content providing server an URL of a content that isassociated with the IP address.
 9. The non-transitory recording mediumof claim 7, wherein the content is a content that has a shortestdistance from the location of the mobile terminal among a plurality ofcontents that are associated with location information.